Thursday, April 19, 2007

Lost My Mind

I, for one, still remain fascinated by Lost which has lately decided to unravel and add new mysteries every week. The symbolism on the show is beyond comprehension, and it just keeps growing. (Before I get acccused of plagiarism, some of these thoughts have germanated from Entertainment Weekly's excellent weekly postings on Lost (although some are all my own):

Last night, we met Ruth (Desmond's ex-fiancee) and Naomi (the name of the parachutist according to ABC). Two names with major biblical significance and Naomi is the daughter-in-law of Ruth. What does this mean? I don't know.

We have Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob. Yes, more bible stuff. And who is Jacob? The mysterious figure we keep hearing about who seems to be in charge of/a deity to the Others. Is Ben his son?

I'm sure this has been observed elsewhere, but Desmond is Odysseus and his beloved Penelope (for those not up on your Odyssey, that is the name of Odysseus' wife) is faithfully waiting for him to return from his sea adventures. Is Desmond actually the central character in this entire adverture, i.e., is Lost simply an Odyssey for the 21st century? As is Desmond forced to constantly be saving the world, whether be entering the numbers (remember the numbers?) or saving Charlie's life?

And then Joseph Heller lands in the middle of the Island, in Portugese to boot. (When I saw the book, I said to Mrs. Bartender, "Portugese?") Is this too a sign that war is coming?

As always, the best comic moments come from Sawyer (mix tape!) and Hurley. But what is going on with Jack (and Juliet) will clearly play a major role in the final 5 episodes and Locke will (must) also be back in a big way. I'm not sure we'll ever know what it all means, but I still want to try to find out.